


all the roads I've crossed

by GuardianKarenTerrier



Series: Week One: Oblivious [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen, Platonic Marinette Dupain-Cheng & Chat Noir, adrien augreste 2k19
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-08-03
Packaged: 2020-07-27 15:07:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20048038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GuardianKarenTerrier/pseuds/GuardianKarenTerrier
Summary: He knows Ladybug loves him, but sometimes he can't stop himself wishing she loved him the samewayhe does her.He doesn't have to explain himself to Marinette for them to reassure each other.





	all the roads I've crossed

**Author's Note:**

> for the 'just a friend' prompt for Adrien Augreste 2k19. thanks again to [Tempomental](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tempomental), [shinobicyrus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShinobiCyrus) and especially [CaughtFeelings](url) for beta'ing this!

"No, Chat Noir and I are just friends," Ladybug says, firmly, to the reporter shoving her way to the front of the crowd. It's not Alya, for once. It's not even Mme. Chamack. It's someone Chat Noir's never seen before.

And he finds himself focusing on her, memorising her face, instead of acknowledging the crushing weight in his chest at Ladybug's words.

He _ knows _ she only sees him as a friend. He knows, because she's _ told _ him, that there's someone else. He doesn't know who, and he doesn't _ want _ to know who, but- it hurts that it's not _ him_. He knows that she feels that same spark in their partnership that he does, that same bond of love and trust, but it isn't the same _ kind _ of love that he feels for her.

It's enough that she does love him. It has to be. He doesn't have any claim on her feelings, and at least he's never doubted that she _ does _ love him. That it isn't in the same way shouldn't _ matter _ to him so much. 

But it does. He can't help that it does.

The press conference is over, and Ladybug catches his hand before he can vault away. Her eyes are tired behind her mask when she smiles at him. "Thanks for always backing me up, kitty. I could never do this without you."

Chat Noir bows over her hand, turning up the charm on automatic, but he's focusing on rebuilding the image of that reporter in his head as he does. He isn't very good at remembering faces. That's why he's trying to, because it's something that takes up his concentration. "Of course, my Lady. You know this cat's always got your back."

Ladybug laughs and lets him go. "See you tomorrow, minou."

He watches her go with a rising restlessness in his chest, a feeling very like when Plagg starts poking him with tiny claws to get his attention. 

He_ should _ go home. It's late, and leaving a recording of snoring on his bed won't last forever. He thinks Nathalie's begun convincing the Gorilla to do random room checks, too, and he _ knows _ that Nathalie has been increasingly suspicious herself.

Nathalie doesn't know yet that the Gorilla has started looking the other way more and more often when Adrien darts off into a crowd or tumbles out of the car to race away. Adrien isn't too sure why his bodyguard has decided _ now _ that his charge needs more freedom but he's not about to question it.

He should go home, though. Just in case. Just in-

He doesn't go home.

He goes running on the rooftops instead, enjoying the shock of landing on each new roof, the way he can dart through dappled moonlight to hide himself in the shadows of chimneys and gardens before leaping and tumbling to a new destination. He _ loves _this, this feeling of freedom, the power and agility his Miraculous grants him. Adrien's hardly out of shape but when Plagg lends him his strength and magic Adrien runs so fast and jumps so high that he feels like if he's not careful he won't always come back down.

(He's not careful, though. That's hardly the worst fate he can think of).

He doesn't really have a destination in mind. It's sheer coincidence that he goes past Marinette's balcony at all. 

He has to pause on her chimney once he sees her. He's far enough out of the shadows of her string of lights that he knows he's invisible once he remembers to whip his tail back up out of sight.

Marinette is crying.

Not- badly, not even all that much. She's humming, too, and tending one of the plants on the balcony, and Adrien can't really hear any tears in her voice but there _ are _ definitely tears slipping down her cheeks.

He slips a little further down her chimney, crouching on the balcony railing but still safely in the shadows.

"I know you're there, Chat Noir." Marinette's voice is steady, too, not revealing a trace of the tears he can still see. She blinks heavily, and brushes at her face with the back of her hand, but she doesn't make any attempt to hide that she's been crying from him.

"What's wrong?" Adrien asks, more softly than he means to, as he lands on the balcony itself with a quiet thump. He shivers in the cool night air, suddenly chilly as he wasn't while he was roaming the city skyline, and moves closer. "Marinette? Are you all right?"

She sniffs once and brushes her hand across her face again. "It's nothing, Chat Noir, really. Don't worry about it." She turns a wan smile to him and asks, "How was the press conference? I had to help in the bakery, so I missed most of it."

He can't help but brighten a little. No matter how down his Lady's last words to the reporters have left him, he'll never pass up a chance to talk about her.

He does, gushing probably a little bit more than is normal or comfortable, but that's okay. Chat Noir can be a little weird in a way that Adrien has to struggle hard _ not _ to be. Adrien still hasn't learned a lot of social cues very well; Chat Noir is allowed to just _ ignore _ them and not worry about it.

Marinette is starting to smile, at least. She's still moving around her rooftop garden, tending to each plant in turn, and Adrien finds he can't help but watch her hands flash as she buries them in dirt, as she distributes soil more evenly around some of the plants. He notices the faint scars on her hands and wonders as she makes sure to water any plants that they look like they might be in danger of wilting and arranges a few of them in different places in a way that probably has to do with how much sun the balcony gets in the daylight. She notices him noticing, laughs, and admits freely that she's sometimes just as clumsy with needle and thread as she is otherwise. She shoves him playfully in retaliation for increasingly terrible puns and it only encourages him to make worse ones.

She's not crying anymore and he's not moping quite so much. 

He does find by the next day that it's much, much easier to bring up the memory of Marinette's hands, dirt crumbled under her fingernails and smeared across her palms, than it was to try and remember that reporter's face. 

He doesn't know why she was crying that night. He didn't ask her, and she didn't ask him why he was out that night at all.

He does go back to the balcony on more nights than just that one. 

He doesn't catch her crying again but she tends to her ferns and flowers every night he's there. She teaches him the names of them, and how to tell which ones need attention, and insists with a red face that singing to plants is _ absolutely _ proven to help with their growth and don't you _ dare _ laugh at me for this, Chat Noir, I will push you right off this roof-

Marinette does push him off the roof, one night, when he steps up behind her and takes a sniff of whatever it is she's planting and his eyes go wide. He tries to snatch the plant out of her hands and she spins against him, plants one hand on his chest, and shoves him so hard he tumbles over the balcony railing.

Her face appears over it a moment later, terror fading to narrowed eyes as she finds him clinging to his baton and laughing too hard to speak. "I didn't expect you tonight, Chat. Stay away from this one, okay? I'm growing it for a friend and it's, uh-" She flushes. "Well, it's catnip, you _ probably _ shouldn't handle it."

"Hey," Chat Noir says, balancing back upright on his baton and faking indignation. "I may be a cat, _princess_, but I think I can handle _ one plant _ just fine."

Marinette visibly struggles with herself for a moment, but then there's a light in her eyes as she challenges, "Prove it."

He doesn't know where she gets the camera from. 

He doesn't remember, later, knocking over her friend's plant, rolling around in the scattered leaves and pot shards after, and purring so hard he can hear it just looking at Marinette's pictures.

"And you're not upset about that, kitty?" Ladybug asks him, on patrol a few nights later. Chat Noir hasn't actually told her _ who _ he's been meeting late at night but she knows there is someone. She knows, because she'd asked him after only about a week what had happened and pointed out that he'd shown up for patrol practically glowing with happiness.

Chat Noir shrugs, crouching on the rooftop and dragging his claws against the stone absently. "No, not with her. I know she's not going to show them to anyone, after all, and it's not like she _ made _ me do it. She dared me and I did."

Ladybug opens her mouth, shuts it, and visibly changes whatever it is she was going to say. "You seem to really like this girl, minou." Her voice turns gently teasing as she says, "Is there anything you'd like to tell me?"

He shrugs, unwilling to raise his eyes to meet her gaze for reasons he can't place. "Not really, my Lady. She's-" He swallows and closes his eyes, turning his head away. Ladybug's hand lands lightly on his head a moment later, ruffling his hair behind his ears, and he leans hard into her touch even as he says softly, "She's just a friend."

**Author's Note:**

> title from blackmore's night 'home again.' in all honesty so, so many of these titles are gonna be blackmores nights lyrics because i love their music and i am around absolutely no one else who does.
> 
> (the next line of the song, btw, is 'always seem to lead back to you').


End file.
